Samara Morgan is the central character and primary antagonist of the American The Ring series of horror films. She is loosely based on Sadako Yamamura from the original Japanese Ring series, who at her turn was inspired by the traditional onryō.

Character biographyEdit

The Ring Two establishes that her mother, Evelyn Osorio (Sissy Spacek), gave birth to Samara at a Christian hospital. She had a troubled pregnancy, experiencing hallucinations and visions, suffering afterwards from serious PPD. She claimed something from the waters of the afterlife for her baby, implying Samara was possessed by an evil spirit : Evelyn later says to Rachel Keller that "they let the dead get in". Evelyn tried to drown Samara when she still was a baby, but the nuns stopped her. It is revealed later that Evelyn tried to drown Samara because she told her to, supposedly because this was the only way to save Samara from the evil spirits possessing, in a similar fashion as to how Aidan Keller told his mother Rachel she had to drown him to save him from Samara in The Ring 2.

Afterwards Evelyn was taken to a mental institution and Samara was adopted by Richard (Brian Cox) and Anna Morgan (Shannon Cochran).

Paranormal Abilities Edit

Primarily Ecto-Mechanical in nature, Samara possessed the power of "projected thermography" - she can "burn" images into the mind of other living beings or on any recording media. After taking Samara home, Anna had a hard time concentrating and sleeping - her mind would be filled with gruesome images when her daughter was around. Samara's presence made the horses on the Morgan's farm go insane and die, which threw her mother into a deep depression. Samara also never slept and her adopted parents soon were terrified of her. It is unknown if she couldn't control her powers, or if it was a more sinister reason.

Anna and Samara were sent to a psychiatric hospital. Richard forced Samara to move into the farm's barn, hoping the distance between her and Anna would alleviate the visions and hallucinations. The family went to Shelter Mountain Inn a week later for a winter vacation in somewhere in the month of Feb. While Samara was singing and standing out in front of an old well admiring a tree in the distance (the same one in her tape), Anna snuck up on her. She attempted to kill Samara by pulling a garbage bag over her head. But when Samara struggled, Anna struck her in the head with a brick (causing her to be still) and letting her fall into a well. Anna then committed suicide by jumping off a nearby cliff. Since Samara was born on Jan. 4 1970 (Rachel noticed when she found her birth certificate) and this happened in 1978 she was only 8-years-old.

Samara lived on for seven days in the well, destroying her fingernails while trying to climb out. After she died, several more Shelter Mountain Inn cabins were built. One was built over the well and the TV and the VCR were placed directly above it. Her spirit created the cursed video tape using her "projected thermography" power. Anyone watches this tape their phone rings and they will answer and Samara will say "seven days". Seven days later the viewer will suffer a terrible death unless they have shown someone else the tape so that Samara still will be heard.

In the filmsEdit

After journalist Rachel Keller's (Naomi Watts) niece falls victim to the curse in the first film, Rachel investigates and discovers the tape and its origins. Towards the end of the first film, Rachel discovers Samara's corpse at the bottom of the well and gives her a proper burial, presumably putting her spirit to rest. Samara, however, cannot sleep, and kills the last person to have watched the tape -- Rachel's ex-boyfriend, Noah (Martin Henderson). Samara's waterlogged corpse passes into the real world from the nearest reflective surface, and shows her face, killing him with fear. Rachel and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) realize that Samara is not seeking peace or understanding; she wishes only to inflict pain and suffering on a world that had hurt her. Rachel realizes that the curse skipped her because she made a copy and showed it to Noah, therefore spreading the curse, she realizes this is the only way to get rid of her. So she has her son make a copy, before his time runs out. In the film, it does not say or show who they show it to. Rachel simply sneaks it into a video store and puts it up on a shelf. (In an abandoned plot, Rachel gives the tape to a sex offender.)

In The Ring Two, Samara's spirit tries to possess Aidan, telepathically forcing anyone who crosses her to commit suicide. Samara believes that Rachel loves her and could give her the care and love her mother and foster parents didn't, because Rachel went looking for her body and tried to comfort her in the first movie. This is why Samara wants to become Aidan and inhabit his body. When Rachel banishes Samara's spirit from her son, she returns again, pulling Rachel through her television down into the well seen on the video. Rachel is saved when part of the wall breaks off, the water sending Samara down and delaying her. Rachel finally makes it out, just as Samara starts her climb again. Rachel slides the lid on the well,trapping her, at the exact moment when Samara is going to climb out. Samara is not shown to emerge again from the well, although her eventual fate is left ambiguous.

PortrayalsEdit

In The Ring, Samara is played by Daveigh Chase. Archival footage of Chase was also used in The Ring Two. For the remaining scenes in The Ring Two, Samara is played by Kelly Stables and is credited as "Evil Samara".

The characterization of Samara in The Ring followed very closely that of Sadako Yamamura in the 1998 film Ringu. Samara appears to lack Sadako's power of "blacking out" her image from footage taken before her death, presumably because this would have made the hospital footage of her impossible. Samara was also a full 11 years younger than Sadako when she was killed (Sadako being 19 and Samara being 8).

The Samara of the The Ring Two has a more conventionally undead appearance, with make-up on her arms suggesting long immersion. She frequently appears without the flickering videotape texture, and in a much more varied range of situations. Her movements are faster and semi-bestial, and she seems to be associated more with water and less with electricity.

Other MediaEdit

Samara Morgan appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Operation: Rich in Spirit" voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

In Guitar Hero World Tour, one of many selectable hairstyles is named "Lovely Samara". The hairstyle is meant to look exactly like Samara's long hair from the movies.

References Edit

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